Man shot to death after trying to protect woman who was being beaten with snowballs

A man was brutally murdered after trying to help a woman who was being attacked with snowballs, prosecutors in New York said.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced that a Queens man has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the death of 29-year-old Dwayne Haughton of Jamaica, Queens, who had stepped in to break up a fight and escort the woman to her car.

“A celebration turned deadly when the defendant gunned down a man who was doing nothing more than trying to stop an attack on a woman. This was a senseless act of violence for which the defendant will now be locked behind bars for a lengthy period of time,” District Attorney Brown said.

Carie Dixon, 30, of 115-37 Bedell Street in the Jamaica section of Queens, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter before Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise, who indicated he will sentence the defendant to 20 years in prison.

According to the police investigation, a group of women, including the defendant’s current and former girlfriend, became embroiled in a verbal dispute following a party at a banquet hall in South Richmond Hill, Queens.

When the ex-girlfriend was being pummeled with snowballs by the other women, the victim, Dwayne Haughton, intervened and offered to escort her to her car.

As Haughton walked the woman to her car, another man approached, punching the woman in the face, and both she and Haughton fell to the ground.

Dixon approached while reaching into his waistband and fired several shots, hitting Haughton in the torso and right thigh. Haughton was taken to a nearby hospital, where he later died.